1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to staged combustion and more particularly to staged combustion with piston engine and turbine engine supercharger.
2. State of Technology
International Patent Application No. WO 92/06285 to Russell A. Stanley, published Apr. 16, 1992 provides the following state of technology information, “As reliance upon the internal combustion engine grows in our modern society, several driving factors have led to the demand for changes in the design and operation of such engines. As the available fuel supply slowly decreases, it is an objective of internal combustion engine design to provide for improved fuel consumption and economy while not adversely impacting the desired performance of such engines. Alternatively, increasing demands to satisfy environmental concerns associated with such engines have led to the need for providing complex systems to reduce emissions of noxious gases such as unburned hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides formed in the combustion process of internal combustion engines. These objectives in the design of internal combustion engines create conflicting design problems to a great extent as used to reduce emissions of noxious gases have tended to increase fuel consumption and vice versa.”
International Patent Application No. WO 98/49438 to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, published Nov. 5, 1998, provides the following state of technology information, “Numerous approaches for improving the thermal performance of combustion turbine power generation systems have been proposed since the early 1950s when combustion turbines were first applied for stationary power generation. Alternative approaches range from advanced toping and bottoming cycles, to advanced turbine firing conditions. Some of these approaches have been put into practice to reach the current level of performance that combustion turbine power generation has evolved to today.
The prevalent factor enhancing performance has been increases in firing conditions (temperatures and pressures) through advances in airfoil design, materials and cooling methods. Cycle variations are also being developed to improve system performance in contrast to hardware improvements, such as evaporative cooling cycles, recuperative cycles, intercooled cycles, humid air cycles, reheat cycles, advanced bottoming cycles, and elevated steam bottoming conditions. Many proposed approaches for advanced combustion turbine power cycles have been rejected as being unworkable or uneconomical, and some have not yet been developed sufficiently to be verified, demonstrated and commercialized. Therefore, a need exists for new, viable approaches for improved power generation.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,855 issued Jul. 18, 2000 to Frederick E. Becker et al and assigned to Thermo Power Corporation, provides the following state of technology information, “The market for industrial combustion equipment in the United States is shaped in large part by federal regulations governing air standards in urban areas, as mandated by the Clean Air Act (CAA), as amended. Industrial expansion can be limited in areas that do not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the emissions of certain combustion gases, such as NO.sub.2. New sources of NOx in non-attainment areas must use emission offsets and a tight level of control known as “lowest achievable emission rate (LAER).” A target NOx emission no greater than 9 ppmvd (parts per million by volume on a dry basis with 3% O.sub.2 in the emission) is usually established for new sources in non-attainment areas. The Clean Air Act also sets standards for ambient ozone in non-attainment areas and in other areas called “ozone transport regions,” which meet the standard but into which ozone can migrate. New sources in some of the ozone non-attainment areas will be subject to the same LAER NOx target levels. The 1990 amendments to the CAA affects smaller sources than previous regulations and consequently will impact industrial scale furnaces and boilers directly. The usual method to reduce NOx emissions to meet the LAER standards is to post-process exhaust gases employing selective catalytic reduction.”